Helping A Friend
by gawilliams
Summary: Bones asks Booth to help her move into a new apartment. Takes place in season one just after The Man In The fallout Shelter.


_Somewhere along the way of the first season Bones got a new apartment. I know that some great stories have been written about her moving at different times in the timeline, and I've read a number of them, but I thought I would try my hand at one and have it be shortly after the first season Christmas episode The Man In The Fallout Shelter. I've always been intrigued about them getting together in the first season and looking at how it could happen, as it would likely be a more lusty realization (though they would be a couple and it would work out in my opinion). I wanted to use this story to explore Bones a bit. I hope you all enjoy it. Gregg._

_Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended._

"Hey, Bones," Booth said with a smile as his friend and partner walked into his office, a smile on her face. "What's up?"

She frowned. "I don't know what that means," she stated.

He chuckled. He actually liked her naiveté, and enjoyed being able to explain things to her. "It means that I was asking you how you're doing and what's going on," he told her.

"Oh," she brightened. She filed that away in her near photographic mind for later use where appropriate. "I bought a new apartment and it just closed escrow. I move in this weekend," she said brightly.

Booth looked at her a bit surprised. He knew she had loads of money, but buying an apartment in this city? That was damn expensive. He rented and barely made it month to month by being as frugal as he could. "That's great, Bones," he told her honestly. "Did you get a good financing rate?"

"Why should I finance?" she asked as if it was no big deal. "I paid it all up front. I got a good deal. Only $475,000."

His eyes bugged out. "You paid up front almost half a million???" he croaked out. He wondered how big this place was and where it was located. She'd had him over to her other apartment a couple of times to work on paperwork for their cases and liked it a lot. She had real class, and good taste. Simple, yet elegant.

"It's in a good neighborhood and it has about 6,000 square feet," she told him. "It also has a master suite with an en suite bathroom, a guest bedroom, and a two connected room office/library area. There's also a guest bathroom, and a lot of open space in the apartment to work with."

"Wow," he said in awe. That sounded like a great place, and from what he knew about real estate the price was a _unbelievably_ _damn_ good one. Someone lost a Hell of a lot on that sale, like at least 60-75%. It had to have been foreclosed, and considering what the previous owners mortgage payments probably had been he wasn't surprised, despite the high level of the economy now that the stock market had bounced back in the four years since 9/11. Bones wouldn't have to worry about that, though, since she'd paid cash. He paid almost $2,500 a month for a small little place now that he and Tessa were no longer a couple. It was nice enough, but nowhere near what Bones was going to be living in by her description.

"Booth?" she said, a bit nervous about asking this.

He picked up on her nervousness and immediately gave her his undivided attention. "Yeah?" he asked.

"I was wondering if you would mind helping me move into my new apartment," she asked, very hesitantly. "The last time I moved I used a moving service and placed a lot of artifacts and books in storage, but I can fit them all in this new place, so I wanted to do the move myself, with a little help. I trust someone I know to help with the things in storage more than I do a moving service, no matter how reputable."

He had nothing planned for the weekend, so he was more than willing to help. "Sure," he told her with his best smile in place.

"I'm willing to pay you for your time," she continued. "It's a lot of work."

He chuckled. "Bones," he told her. "I won't let you pay me a dime. You're one of my closest friends. I'm happy to help."

Bones warmed on hearing that he considered her a close friend. She didn't have many friends, and those that were, were mainly work colleagues in the lab. Booth was a work colleague, too, but he'd quickly become something more over the last few months. She was drawn to him, and she had actually been very disappointed when she had found that he was dating Tessa, but had been pleased when she found that they had broken up recently. Not a very friendly way to think, but she couldn't help what she felt, no matter how illogical feelings were. When Angela had found out that Booth was single again, and on the market (Angela's words, not hers), she had immediately went to her and told her to get her ass in gear and get some of that "Studly FBI Adonis". While at first she had despised him, she had come to see that he was a very good man and an extremely talented and capable FBI agent.

Bones had to admit the idea of becoming sexually involved with Booth was appealing. It had been a few weeks since her short time back with Michael Stires, and that had left a very bad feeling inside. A positive encounter with someone who was a very good person that she did indeed like and she knew had only her best interests at heart would be very good. It would also allow her to deal with her rising biological urges that had been stoked when Michael had been with her and had not been met since her breakup with Peter, though she had to admit the sex with Peter had been rather boring and blasé. She would see how things went this weekend with Booth helping her move before deciding if she wanted to begin something with him. It was something she had to be sure about as she was quite positive that if she became involved with him it would be long term and something very special. She couldn't quantify it, but it was a feeling she was willing to listen to, despite her normal disregard of such unquantifiable elements as "feelings".

"Okay," she told him with a smile. "How about coming over to my place Friday after work and we can load the moving truck with the boxes along with some pieces of furniture. You can stay the night and we can take the stuff over early Saturday. Then we can work on everything else once we have an idea of where we're at."

"Sounds good," he replied. The idea of staying at Bones' place overnight was a bit frightening as he was working on coming to terms with his feelings for her that went well beyond just friends and colleagues, but what she said made sense.

Bones stood up. "I have to get back to the Jeffersonian," she told him. "Wong Fu's after work?" she asked.

He smiled. He was really impressed that she was trying to socialize, and he was very happy that she was trying to with him. "Six o'clock?" he asked.

"Perfect," she replied as she left his office.

When Brennan got back to the Jeffersonian Angela was waiting for her to arrive. She shook her head. For some reason Angela had made Temperance Brennan's friendship with Seeley Booth her pet project. When Angela had found out about the move and that Brennan was considering asking for Booth's help, she'd been very excited and demanded that Brennan march right over and ask him. Now she was obviously waiting to see what had happened.

"So?" Angela said instantly. She'd been waiting for the last couple of hours to find out if Booth was going to be spending some serious time with her best friend that weekend.

"He's going to help me move," Brennan said simply as she put on her lab coat and sat down at her desk, booting up her computer. She clicked on the photo file from the latest set of remains in limbo so she could get an idea on the latest identification she would be working on.

"Uh, Brennan?" Angela questioned, dying for details.

Brennan sighed. "What Angela?" she asked, a bit exasperated. She'd done exactly what Angela had suggested and now she wanted nothing more than to get some work done before having dinner with Booth.

"Details would be nice," Angela almost pleaded. She loved Brennan to death, but she wished that the brilliant Forensic Anthropologist was more interested in dishing out the dirt. Angela lived for good gossip.

"Booth's coming over Friday after work and helping load the truck I've hired, then he's staying the night so we can get an early start on Saturday," Brennan relayed concisely. She took a file and went out into the lab area.

"He's staying the night?!" Angela said loudly as she immediately followed Brennan.

"It's no big deal, Angela," Brennan said calmly as she bent over the exam table to begin going over the remains.

Angela shook her head at how naïve her best friend could be sometimes. "Sweetie, it _**is**_ a big deal," she said firmly. "We're talking about Booth. In you apartment. Spending the night. And he's single now. Do I have to draw you a picture?"

"I don't know what that means," Brennan looked up in confusion.

"Booth is HOT, Sweetie," Angela patiently explained. "Not only that, but he's becoming a very good friend who we all like, and you _**really**_ like." She half expected Brennan to dispute that last comment, but miraculously the brilliant scientist didn't disagree. She took that as a very good sign. "The two of you work really well together, and if you take it one step further..."

"A big step further, Ange," Brennan interjected, ignoring the double meaning.

Angela grinned. "I imagine he is big," she said dreamily. If she didn't already know that Bren was pretty enamored with Booth, even though the other woman would never admit it, she wouldn't mind trying for a tumble with Booth herself. Even though she had an annual arrangement with Kirk in New Mexico, she was hardly monogamous.

"Your point being?" Brennan asked, exasperated at the loss of valuable work time.

"The point is, Bren, that this has some real possibilities, and I'm not just talking about getting laid this weekend," Angela pointed out. "You like, Booth, a lot. Can you honestly deny you haven't fantasized about what it would be like with him?"

"No," Brennan admitted. She didn't know why, but her feelings and actions relating to Booth she wanted to keep more private. When it came to Angela, though, that was almost impossible.

"And since your get together with Michael, you haven't been out with anyone, so I'm assuming you aren't sleeping with anyone right now," Angela surmised. She knew how much Michael had hurt Bren, and that it would be a while before Bren took another man to bed, casual or otherwise. Booth, though, wasn't just any man, and Angela knew that he was just what Bren needed to rebuild her confidence. If it developed into a serious relationship, then it was all the better. She also knew that if it didn't work out in the long term, Booth was not the kind of man to let it interfere with the friendship and the working relationship.

"No, I'm not," Brennan replied. She didn't let Angela know that she'd been to a bar the previous Friday evening looking to possibly find a willing guy to take home for the night, but in the end had decided not to and went home early. Alone. She just hadn't felt ready to reengage her sex life once she was at the bar and looking for an available guy.

"Just think about it, Sweetie," Angela said by way of ending the conversation. "There aren't many guys who would be better than Booth, and I'm not necessarily talking about how he'd be in bed, though I'm sure he's awesome there, too."

"Okay, I'll think about it," Brennan said, mainly to get Ange to let it go so she could get back to work. "Now can I get to work? I have a lot to do before I leave for the night." She sighed in relief when Angela trotted off the platform and headed to her own office. She turned to Zack. "What have you found so far, Zack?" she asked as she put on her gloves and leaned over the remains.

That Friday seemed to drag by for everyone involved. Bones was edgy as Angela simply would not let the subject of Booth coming to stay the night, despite the fact that it was only to help her move, drop, and as a result Bones was plagued by thoughts of a very _un_partnerly nature for most of the day. Regardless of her original intent to not think about it at all after the conversation earlier in the week with Angela, she had found herself wondering about Booth in much more detail than she had at any previous time. She'd also taken the time to pay closer attention to the less noticeable aspects of Booth whenever she was around him. One of the things she noticed was that he was much more intelligent than she had previously given him credit for. That had prompted her to look into his _curriculum vitae_ a bit more thoroughly. To her shock she found that not only did he have a Masters degree in Criminology, which she knew had several important forensic analysis components, but he also had recently completed a JD degree through the outreach program at the law school at Georgetown. He had the law equivalent of a doctorate! While she'd learned to trust his instincts over the last few months, she made a promise to herself to listen with a bit more care when he made observations and gave his own analysis to what was being done.

One other item that she'd spent time thinking about was the fact that she was not dismissing the idea of being involved with Booth out of hand. While she was not opposed, _per se_, to a relationship with a work colleague, after this latest disaster with Michael, she was understandably reluctant to give something like that a try, even though Booth was nothing like Michael. Perhaps it was the fact that she was feeling her urges a bit more seriously lately, and the fact that she had gone home alone from the bar the previous Friday when she'd originally intended on finding a willing guy for a one night stand. She wasn't sure why, but she was not opposed to having a sexual relationship with Booth.

All of these things were running through her mind as she walked into her apartment and got changed into some jeans and a t-shirt. Booth would be there in a little while and she wanted to be able to get started as soon as possible. She made a quick call for some take out, and then went about organizing the things she wanted moved into the moving truck first.

Booth walked up to Bones' door and halted for a minute. He'd been thinking about this all week, and no matter how he considered it, he couldn't help shake the feeling that something was going to change between them this weekend. The question for him was, was he willing to allow such a change?

He had to admit that she had become a close friend over the last few months since she had essentially blackmailed him into becoming his partner so that she would work with him again. Since then, he'd seen the inner Bones' and he liked what he saw. Her passion about what they did was very energizing for him, and he also was humbled when she had told him that she wanted to help him with his "cosmic balance sheet", even though she didn't believe in such a concept. She'd understood him, and that meant a lot to him. He also found amusing her lack of knowledge about pop culture and her constant refrain of "I don't know what that means" was something he actually looked forward to, though her timing could be a bit better at times.

A large plus in her favor was also the fact that Parker liked her. The kid had only seen her for a few seconds and she had waved at him, but for some reason he had yet to stop asking questions about her when Booth would talk to him on the phone. At least Rebecca was willing to let him speak to Parker on the phone regularly. Could he see he, Parker, and Bones together at the park, or having a fun day together? To be completely honest, he could.

His one real concern was the fact that Bones had just been seriously hurt by a former lover she'd hooked up with again a few weeks before. He'd wanted nothing more than to beat the shit out of Stires for what he'd done to Bones. The man had pretty much used the case as a way to get back in Bones' bed for a few nights and then tore apart her self-confidence in her professional abilities and shattered a great deal of the small level of comfort she had on a personal level as a warm and caring human being. Booth wasn't a saint in the sex department, but he would never disrespect a woman like that, and wouldn't dream of doing something so callous to Bones, whether it be for sex or some other desire. He felt that even though she was awkward, her real strength as a professional and as a person was the deep level of commitment and caring she had for the cases she worked on. He finally decided that he would see how the weekend played out. If Bones hinted at wanting to try something with him, then he would agree and see how things went, but he would talk to her, though, about his feelings regarding women as he wanted her to know that while he may be somewhat chivalrous, he did believe in equality in a relationship. Outside of being left alone, he felt that that would probably be the major issue for her about relationships. Gathering his courage, he knocked on the door. The door opened instantly and a smiling Bones stood there to greet him.

"Come on in, Booth," she said without hesitation. "Most of the stuff for loading tonight is ready, except for a couple of bookcases. I've got the boxes for the books and we can get those packed up after dinner."

"Want me to call for some takeout?" he asked.

"No, I already called," she told him as she pulled her hair back into the pony tail she liked to wear when she was working on something as some of the tresses had pulled loose. "A deli nearby has some excellent sandwiches and they make vegetarian ones, too, so I thought a full sub sandwich for you and a vegetarian one for me."

"Sounds great," he eagerly approved. He liked local delis, and there was one near his apartment that he'd discovered shortly after moving in a few weeks before.

"The only thing I'm not sure about is the larger furniture," she began to discuss some of the logistics now that the preliminaries for the evening were out of the way. "I hadn't really thought about it until today when I finished packing everything else. Maybe I need to call a couple of movers anyway."

"Don't worry about it, Bones," he replied as the doorbell rang. He went over and opened the door, taking the takeout bags and quickly paying the bill before Bones had a chance to do so. He gave the kid a good tip, remembering his own college days after the military and having to manage school and whatever odd job he could find to keep him occupied so he wouldn't fall back into gambling.

"I'm perfectly capable of paying for our dinner, Booth," she protested when she realized what he'd done.

"I know," he said as he set the bags down on the table.

"Then you should have let me pay," she pressed, thinking she had finally gotten an argument in that was a good one. He seemed to have a very good aptitude for seeing the weaknesses in her very logical arguments on almost all non science related subjects.

"Call me a chauvinist or a Neanderthal if you want, Bones, but I was taught that it is polite, and a privilege, to pay the tab when having a meal with a beautiful woman," he explained, thinking about Pops and all his words of wisdom about life and women. "It has nothing to do with your ability to pay, or any crap about being dominant or owed anything afterwards."

That last statement reaffirmed her opinion that Booth was indeed a very good person. She had known her fair share of men who would take a woman out for dinner, or a date of some sort, and expect some form of sexual favor at the end of the evening. She was not against that, necessarily, but only if it had been understood that the date was more a prelude to the actual desire to have a sexual encounter, than the real reason for seeing the person. There were a lot of men, though, who just assumed that a woman consenting to a date would also be willing to reciprocate sexually afterward. That she was against. Assumptions could easily hurt people and were demeaning in that they made a negative commentary on the freedom of the other individual to make decisions and have opinions of their own.

"You are helping me this weekend, Booth, and I expect to be able to at least provide the food," she stated firmly, and looked him in the eye seriously, letting him know that politeness or not, she was deadly serious.

"Fair enough," he conceded, though he did feel slightly uncomfortable about it.

"Why shouldn't I worry about it?" she asked suddenly.

"What?" he looked up from his sandwich.

"You said I shouldn't worry about the heavy pieces of furniture," she reminded him.

"Oh, that," he said as he wiped the side of his mouth. "When we get to the couple of heavy pieces I have a friend who can help for a couple of hours. I work with him at the Hoover Building and he moved furniture when he was in college."

"Okay," she replied, trusting Booth's judgment, and knowing that she and Booth would be able to handle all the things in storage and all but the largest pieces of furniture here. She decided to ask him about something that had been bugging her ever since their time in the quarantine. "How come you never mentioned having a son before?" she asked curiously.

Booth paused a moment. He wasn't upset that Goodman had inadvertently let them all know about Parker, as the man had assumed since Booth had told him, that everyone else already knew. The problem was that he did feel kind of guilty that at the very least he had never told Bones. She'd become a good friend in the last several months, and he really believed that partners should share things about themselves. He decided to be perfectly candid.

"The whole situation between me and Parker's mom, Rebecca, is completely screwed up, Bones," he admitted. "I have no real parental rights in her opinion, and I only get to see Parker when she feels it's okay. I had to practically beg to get her to let Sid bring him to me while we were in Quarantine, and then for the couple of hours I got with him when we were released. People like asking how your kid is doing, and it's natural to do that, but being asked all the time only just reinforces how fucked up that whole situation is, so I don't let many people know about Parker."

"I'm sorry," Bones said softly. She had been sure that Booth felt the world for his son just from the brief time she'd seen the two of them together, and as Booth was such a people person, that situation must be especially painful. She decided to make some quiet inquiries about what could possibly be done to make the custody situation a bit more even handed for him. Maybe nothing could be done, but she had some excellent attorneys who could look into it for her.

"It's not your fault," he replied. He leaned back and took a swig of his beer. "I spend as much time as I can with Parker, and put up with Rebecca's bullshit. At least he knows I love him and that I'll always be there for him if he needs me."

"That's the most important thing imaginable for a child," Bones said a bit cryptically. She didn't elaborate, and she was glad that he didn't ask her what she was getting at. They ate in silence for a few more minutes and then the food was gone.

"Where do we start?" Booth asked with a grin as he contemplated spending the next couple of hours doing something decidedly normal and non-work related with Bones.

Bones smiled. "Let's start with the living room, and then work our way into the library," she suggested.

"Let's get to work," Booth clapped his hands together.

_A/N: I have been working on more to this story and almost have the second chapter done, so I thought I would post this now and see what kind of general reaction there is. I will be posting the second chapter to _**London Holiday**_ this evening some time. As always, thank you for all the reviews to my various postings. They've been greatly appreciated. Gregg._


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